China and US sign deals worth more than $200bn dollars during Trump visit

Thursday, November 09, 2017 - 07:11 AM

China and the United States have signed additional business agreements valued at $206.5bn during President Donald Trump's visit to Beijing, though some were less than binding commercial contracts.

The agreements signed on Thursday at a ceremony attended by Mr Trump and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, included sales of US-made chipsets, jet engines and auto parts.

Such contract signings are a fixture of visits to Beijing by foreign leaders and are intended to defuse foreign complaints about China's trade policies.

Many of the contracts signed on Thursday appeared to represent purchases Chinese mobile phone makers, airlines and other customers would have made anyway that were saved for signing during Mr Trump's visit.

Others included a cooperation framework on shale gas and a memorandum of understanding on industrial development.

Mr Trump vowed to change "one-sided and unfair" trade relations with China but said he does not blame Beijing for taking advantage of the US in the past.

The US President said trade between the US and China has not been "very fair" for the U.S. and cited the large trade deficit between the two global powers.

Mr Trump said called for immediate action on "the unfair trade practices" that drive the deficit along with barriers to market access and the theft of intellectual property.

His Chinese counterpart said Beijing believes cooperation between the two countries is the "only correct choice" and that relations between the sides have entered a new historic starting point.

Mr Xi told Mr Trump at the meeting at the Great Hall of the People: "We believe that Sino-US relations are a matter of the well-being of the peoples of the two countries as well as the peace, prosperity and stability of the world."

The Chinese premier said his country was committed to working with the US on North Korea, Afghanistan and other issues of international concern.

Mr Xi said China is willing to work with the U.S. "with mutual respect, seeking mutual benefits, to focus on cooperation and control our differences."

Mr Trump hailed their personal relationship and said they will work together to solve not only their mutual problems but also "world problems and problems of great danger and security".

"I believe we can solve almost all of them and probably all of them," he said.

Following an earlier military parade arranged in his honour Mr Trump said "the world was watching".